Apple: How to avoid taxes while Americans go hungry

There is something I’d like the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, and the members of the Apple Board to think about as they defend the company’s tax evasion, particularly the status it accords itself in its Apple Operations International, the offshore holding company that doesn’t have an official tax residence because, well, because it doesn’t. Without it, Apple can exploit the gap between the tax laws of the United States and the tax laws of Ireland (where it has a number of affiliates, given Ireland’s low tax rates, and from which it sell its products worldwide).

Here is what it is:

While you make every effort to take advantage of and to lobby for tax loopholes, Mr. Cook, some 50 million Americans live in households that cannot consistently afford enough food, even with the nation’s food-stamp program.

You, Apple, peddle your wares and ignore the needs of the nation. As I and others have lamented, you reap the benefits of citizenship, but you limit your responsibility for the costs, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab.

As I said:

“People may love Apple products but they may be less inclined to love the corporation, particularly as it flaunts its might, flexes its lobbying muscle and does all it can to avoid paying taxes to America, its corporate home. Maybe sales will start to suffer as people realize the product isn't worth the price we're paying.”

And, here, that corporate citizenship requires more than you appear ready and willing to recognize:

“Does Apple have no sense of responsibility, no sense of obligation as a corporate citizen, for, let’s put it plainly, the welfare of the nation? Not even for what it takes and receives? Perhaps I have a flawed view of what citizenship is all about.”